MUMBAI, Oct. 7 -- Excited to cast her first vote, 18-year-old Rupika Anil Singh did everything by the book - collected the required documents, confirmed her eligibility, and applied to register as a voter in April this year. But when she attempted to enrol online, her application was denied. The reason: she had turned 18 in April 2024, after the stipulated cut-off date of October 1, 2023. Undeterred, Singh tried again - this time offline - at Booth 181 in the Mahim Assembly constituency, where her family lives. She was turned back once more, told that only those who had turned 18 before the previous October were eligible to be added to the rolls. She decided to wait and watch for the next revision, hoping the cut-off would be updated. But by September, she learnt that the electoral rolls for the upcoming civic elections had already been frozen - with all additions, deletions and corrections completed by the end of June. "I am not standing only for myself, but for hundreds and thousands of others who are being denied their right to vote despite being eligible," Singh said. On October 1, she wrote to the State Election Commission. Under the current rule, only those born on or before October 1, 2006, are eligible to vote in the civic polls - effectively excluding everyone born after that date, including those turning 18 this year. According to data she accessed, Mumbai recorded 1,79,861 births in 2006 and 1,78,402 in 2007 - an average of around 179,000 potential new voters who may miss out on their first election despite crossing 18. "I wanted to choose my representative to fix issues like waterlogging, garbage management and traffic," said Singh, a first-year MBA Tech student in Data Science....